You may remember the case of Diane Blood, who had to fight to get the right to use her husband's sperm after he fell into a coma and died. She wasn't allowed to do this in the UK, and her legal battle went on for some years. Eventually, she was allowed to use his sperm, although she had to go abroad to Belgium to do so, and she went on to have two children.
Now another British woman is trying to follow down the same path. Her husband died suddenly, just a week after they'd been to see a consultant for fertility advice. She was granted permission by a judge to have sperm taken from her husband, but must now fight to be able to store and then use that sperm.
It's a tricky legal area, as it all focuses on consent, which someone clearly can't give after they've died, but in this case the woman must hope that the fact that they had been to see a specialist so shortly before his death must make his intentions at the time very clear. The woman's MP, Vince Cable , has now proposed a change in the law so that evidence from a fertility specialist in a case such as this can be admissable.
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